


Scattered Feathers

by gisho



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-11 14:15:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5629423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gisho/pseuds/gisho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Short fics and unifinished drafts set in the world of Tsubasa.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Cunning Plan

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on LiveJournal, if previously posted.

\--

"I'm sorry," the woman had told them, "I'm travelling too. I won't blow your cover, but I don't know any more about this place than you." She had short black hair and wore a hot pink shirt over black jeans; there were pink silk flowers in her hair.

"It's alright," Syaoran assured her. "Ah ... travelling?"

"Yeah." She smiled at them. "From ... other places, yes?"

Syaoran nodded frantically. "We're looking for something. A feather."

The woman's smile grew even more inscruitable, and Fai bounced on his heels like an eager puppy. "I may", she pronounced, "be able to help you with that."

\--

The plan finally developed (Hokuto and Fai were responsible for it, in about equal parts) involved the use of rather more explosives that Sakura felt comfortable around. "I - I've never set off fireworks before," she told Hokuto when her part was revealed. "I've _seen_ fireworks, but I don't know how they work ..."

"It's easy," Hokuto said. "All you need is a match; I've already pointed them in the right spot. Remember, it has to be at twelve-fifteen _exactly._ And don't let Mokona knock anything over."

"Mokona is very well-behaved," the creature in question objected, and bounced up and down.

Sakura smiled. "I know you are, Mokona. You can remind me when it's time, alright?"

Syaoran was rather less comfortable with his and Kurogane's portion of the plan, which involved dressing in stolen police uniforms and knocking out several innocent bystanders. "It's necessary," Hokuto pointed out. "You'd be recognized if any real policemen were around. And you two are the only ones who know how to use a sword." She was working as she talked, knotting together a pile of scarves she had gotten who-knows-where into something resembling the bright, enticing festival costumes so popular here. Syaoran resisted, with some difficulty, the temptation to ask if those sequins weren't going to chafe.

"Besides, you have the simple part," Fai opined, squinting at his own pile of scarves. "Hokuto-san, do you have the scissors? Thank you. I really don't have the chest for this, and I'll probably have to run away from heavily armed men. You can drop behind the pack and come back here at leisure."

"I can go," Sakura said. "Really, you don't have to do this for me. You'd probably be better at setting off fireworks anyway - "

"I don't mind!" Fai grinned at her. "Besides," he added in a stage-whisper, "I think poor Syaoran-kun wouldn't like to have his princess on display. And this is not the first time I've cross-dressed."

Syaoran choked on his tea. Hokuto grinned. "Good!" she said. "Then you don't need training on how to walk like a woman? I'm trying to make this thing disguise your hips, but there's nothing like acting to fill it out properly."

"Oh, absolutely not." Fai held up the scraps of fabric proudly. Somehow, astonishingly, they had been turned into what looked like a graceful, flowing dress, albeit one with rather more holes in the torso than usual. "How's this, Hokuto-chan?"

"Very nice. But I think I want to add some sequins. Have to look my best." Hokuto flashed a smile at them, and Mokona cheered.

\--

When they regrouped, Fai looking slightly bruised and Hokuto scowling at the scorch marks on her costume, Sakura ventured hesitantly that perhaps that hadn't been so good an idea.

"It was an _excellent_ idea," Hokuto protested. "It would have worked, too, if they hadn't mvoed the damn feather. Don't worry, we'll think of something. I'm going to get everyone some dinner. You look like you need it." She stalked off, brushing at her shoulder.

Syaoran sat next to Sakura, carefully not looking at Fai as he began to change back into his more normal outfit (normal for this world was still rather brighter than Syaoran was accustomed to, but it was a relief compared to the silk ... thing). "I wonder what she's looking for," he wondered aloud. "And why she's helping us."

"She said," Fai said. "She doesn't have anything better to do. Same as me. Maybe she's just nice."

"She is like you," Mokona declared. "She's running from something."

Fai was silent for a long moment. "Well, she's deminately going about it the right way," he said, his voice only a little strained. "I wonder if she made a bargain with the Witch, or if she's travelling under her own power? She looked powerful."

Sakura held Mokona against her cheek. "Hokuto doesn't mean us any harm. She likes us." Mokona nodded (it was rather strange to see; the whole body seemed to be involved) and let out a tired cheep.

There was a rustling noise, and Fai folded himself to the floor between them, once again, Syaoran was pleased to note, fully dressed. "Don't worry, Syaoran-kun. We'll come up with something else to get the feather back. It'll be _fun_." He grinned broadly.

Syaoran had to stop himself from shuddering at that, because he knew it was completely, absolutely, indubitably true.

\---


	2. In Sickness And In Health

\--

"Faaaaai." Ashura's voice was as close to wheedling as it would ever come. "Stop playing with your doll and come kiss me."

"She's not a doll," Fai answered automatically, but he obediently patted Chii on the shoulder, the signal to keep going without him, and headed back into the bedroom. Ashura's hands lay on the sheets, looking disturbingly frail. "I can bring you some hot chocolate," Fai murmured anxiously. "Or soup. Or - "

"No. Kiss me."

Fai obliged, purring softly. When they pulled apart he turned away to hide the mistiness in his eyes. "It's not fair," he said. "You're so big and strong and handsome, you're not supposed to get sick."

"I didn't," Asura growled. "I got hit by a car. You don't have to stay here. You could go back to work, I know it's driving you nuts to wait on me hand and foot - "

"Minoru will understand," Fai told him briskly, answering his unspoken thought. "You're the most important thing in the world to me. I'm not leaving you alone until you're back to normal and your fever has gone down." In the other room, the soft sounds of Chii singing to herself as she typed here barely audible. _I never wanted this,_ Fai thought. _I wanted to be alone. You swept me up like a knight on a big black horse and I had to buy Chii just to remember you wern't the only person in the world._

Ashura smiled, and Fai did not know for what. He fled into the kitchen, and had to lean against the wall and remind himself that he loved this man, for all his foibles, for his overbearing nature, his refusal to admit weakness, even his overbearing ex-wife and his darling, dangerous, daughter, who Fai had rapidly come to hate and love respectively. They were all a part of Ashura, or at least his history.

When he had made the cocoa, he bore it back in with his smile firmly in place. "See, Ashura-chan," he said firmly. " _I'm_ having fun."

Ashura growled, but deigned to accept Fai's assistance in sitting up against a pile of pillows. "I have no doubt you are. You don't have to grin quite so much. I'll be back to normal by next week. Even if I'm not, Arashi would be happy to look in on me. Or Yasha."

"You think I'd leave something like your health and welfare to your _son-in-law_?" Fai feigned shock. "Nonsense!"

"Chii?"

"Isn't programmed for it. Relax and accept it, honey. You're stuck with me."

Ashura smiled again, as if it were exactly what he had wanted.

\---


	3. Queen Kaho

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unfinished and completely jossed at this point. Owes something to [Vikki's speculations on the matter.](http://vikki.livejournal.com/128607.html)

  
\--

When Touya burst into his mother's room he was only half-surprised to see clothes strewn about and a pair of pannier bags open on the table. She was wearing clothes he had never seen her in, dust-colored travelling clothes that reminded him of the brat's digging-up-things outfit, although looser and better-tailored. Beside the bags, he notied, were stacked a neat pile of old books.

"Mother," he said through gritted teeth. "What is going on here? The cooks told me you asked for twelve loaves of waybread."

She smiled and patted his cheek. "Don't worry, dear. See? You're getting the hang of it already. That's what most of kingship is, you know - always acting like you know _exactly_ what's going on, and that you're in charge."

"Where are you _going_? Why are you _packing_?"

His mother was still beautiful, although there were gray streaks in her long red hair and the beginnings of wrinkles around her eyes. It spun behind her as she whirled about to face the window that looked over the desert ruins, suddenly tight-lipped. "Surely you didn't expect me to stay."

"I did. How am I supposed to run the damned kingdom without you?" Touya sat on the table and crossed his arms, trying his best to look Firm and Kingly. He didn't have a lot of practice - only a few days - but he was sure that Mother would appreciate the effort. "What will Yuki do without you? He's not finished his training. And Sakura? She's only ten, for gods' sake! She's just lost her father, you want to leave her completely alone?" Touya bit his lip before he could point out that the same applied to him. After all, he was fifteen, and he was _king_. Surely kings didn't need bedtime stories.

Surely kings could get on without their mothers.

"Yukito's been ready to take over for me for a long time now," his mother said quite levelly. "Your father and I discussed it, you know, before he died." She said that word without any hesitation. "And you can take care of Sakura. She's a lot stronger than you'd think. You're a lot _smarter_ than you think. If I didn't think you'd do fine without me, I wouldn't go, deal or no deal."

Touya kept his arms crossed and tried to look his mother in the eye, but she was still staring out across the desert, hands clasped together. "What do you mean, deal?"

"Did I ever tell you why I married your father?" She sounded quite wistful now, almost nostalgic.

" ... no." He'd always assumed there was some story worth hearing, since she was from a country so far away he couldn't even pronounce it - but they had never spoken of it. In that, as in so many things, his parents had presented a united front.

She paced across the floor, finally settling in a carven chair, folding her hands in her lap. "He won my hand in a bet," she said. "Does that shock you?"

"It does," said Touya levelly, trying to work out the implications. Slavery had been illegal in the country of Clow for as long as the country had existed, and his father, surely, had not been so heartless as to demand marriage as the price to free a woman he had - won - somewhere else - but that didn't fit; his mother had always had the bearing of a queen.

"Before you condemn him, let me state that the bet was with me and I offered it freely." She shrugged, and her eyes slipped shut. "It was on a riddle-game. I had already lost twice ... I should not have gone on. I do not regret it, but I should not have gone on. Do you want to know all of the story? I can see you're confused."

"Yes," Touya whispered, "if you're leaving, I at least once to know why."

\--

Long ago, there was a girl named Kaho, who lived in a country across the ocean. Her mother was a priestess of the moon, who had won fame for her wisdom; it was said of her that she knew ten thousand riddles. Kaho was determined to grow as wise as her mother, and so she set out to travel to the hundred countries of the world.

She had many adventures, and discovered many riddles, and her story could fill a ten books - but at last she came to the country of Clow, where she determined at once to discover the mystery of the ruins that lay in the western desert beside the capital city. As had become her custom, she at once sent a letter to the ruler of the country, speaking of her quest and offering to trade riddles with any scholars who wished to meet with her. Then she found a room in the city and rested for a day.

That evening a messenger came to her room. "I bear a message from the King of Clow," he said to her. "He is a scholar himself, and he begs the honor of your presence at dinner, and wishes to trade riddles with you, if you know any from the far reaches of the world."

_[This was as far as I got.]_


End file.
